Is marijuana debate on the W.Va. horizon?

October 7, 2013

Right now there is at least a "faint hint" that the 2014 West Virginia Legislature may consider a bill to authorize the legalization of medical marijuana. Advocates and some physicians now claim marijuana can alleviate some illnesses or other medical conditions.

But the federal government doesn't condone it, so an anticipated debate about the issue looms during the next 60-day regular legislative session that begins in just a little more than three months. A legislative interim committee discussed the issue at a hearing last month and watched a CNN report about how medical marijuana helped one child with her severe epilepsy.

The stumbling block for many state lawmakers is that the federal government is not on the bandwagon to legalize medical marijuana usage. Explanations of how states are handling the issue were front and center in a couple of presentations to the joint Senate and House health committees during last month's interim committee meetings.

So far 20 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for medical use. And President Obama's administration has said it will not try to criminally prosecute people who follow the laws in that state. But some reluctant legislators in West Virginia apparently would prefer a definitive green light from the federal government.

Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, is a physician and also vice chairman of the House Health Committee. He said he would like to "see the feds get on board with us. If the FDA were to say there is some medical reason to use this and back us up, then I think state legalization is not an unreasonable thing."

Members of the Legislature's committees on health in both houses heard from Karmen Hanson, a health policy expert with the National Conference of State Legislatures, and Matt Simon, a lobbyist and analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, about how other states had handled legalizing marijuana for medical purposes during the September interim committee meetings.

Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, chairs the House Health Committee, and he is sponsoring a resolution that calls for a study of this issue in West Virginia. He said the federal stance is a concern for some legislators. And as a retired pharmacist, he knows that many drugs have the capacity for abuse.

Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, is also a physician, and he has concerns about the possibility that legalized marijuana in this state could become a so-called "gateway drug" that leads individuals who use it to using other more dangerous drugs.

The most positive-and patient-legislative supporter of legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes is Delegate Mike Manypenny, D-Taylor. He admits it is a graduate education process and believes it will at least emerge from committee at the 2014 legislative session.

He realizes 2014 is an election year for all 100 members of the House of Delegates and half of the 34 members of the state Senate. He would like to see it come to the floor for a vote of the full membership at the next regular legislative session and said he is confident it can pass the Legislature no later than 2015.

Meanwhile, former state senator Walt Helmick of Pocahontas County, who is now the Commissioner of Agriculture in West Virginia, has been traveling around the state to share his desire to make the agriculture industry in this state a bigger operation. He told members of the Beckley Rotary Club last month that West Virginians consume about $7 billion worth of food each year, but "not even half of $1 billion goes to agricultural efforts here."

Helmick is aware that West Virginia couldn't compete with the state of Idaho, which is No. 1 in white potatoes nor North Carolina which is No. 1 in sweet potatoes. He said he wants to move the state into a position where it has a "significant impact" on percentage of vegetables such as potatoes, broccoli or carrots consumed here.

One of his first plans to increase agricultural production in this state is to "set up educational plots" during the next growing season which will be March, April and May of 2014. In addition to his plans to use prison inmates for this program, he plans to work with the state Department of Education to get young people involved in these agricultural efforts.

Another goal is to develop a program that involves inmates at the state's prisons. He said the largest state-owned farm adjoins the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County about 18 miles south of Elkins. He wants the inmates there-the capacity is now about 1,200-to become involved in programs to learn about agriculture and develop a trade that can become profitable.

Finally, about one of every five West Virginia residents-a total of some 352,000 people statewide-are currently enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). There are more than 47.7 million people nationwide who participate in the program but proposed reductions would remove about six million people from the program.

The House of Representatives voted last month to remove about six million people from the program, but those cuts are not likely to survive the legislative process in Congress. The Democrat-controlled U. S. Senate has already passed its version of the farm bill with SNAP benefits, including a continuation of the 2009 provision to allow states with high unemployment rates, including West Virginia, to give food stamps to childless individuals without jobs.